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Tuesday 22 March 2016

Allison Pearson - Brexit Bigot

A series of explosions has been reported in and around the Belgian capital Brussels this morning: Zaventam Airport appears to have been the first, with several fatalities and many injuries after a blast said to be close to the American Airlines check-in. Some city centre Metro stations have been evacuated. Many in London and Madrid may be experiencing a sense of déjà vu: we have been here before.
Allison Pearson (photo: Twitter)

With the situation still developing, one might have thought that those who labour in the field of journalism would be watching, waiting and measured in their response, sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of those who have lost loved ones. But over at the Telegraph, that thought would have been misplaced: showing just how far the former paper of record has fallen, pundit Allison Pearson decided to use the attack to propagandise.
Brussels, de facto capital of the EU, is also the jihadist capital of Europe. And the Remainers dare to say we're safer in the EU! #Brexit” she trilled unthinkingly. Ms Pearson has significant previous for this sort of bigotry, but this was crass in the extreme. Owen Jones tried a subtle hint: “astonishingly awful tweet”. ITV Europe editor James Mates tried a similar approach, with “Perhaps not the moment …”.
Others were not so restrained at reading this attack of opportunism. Liv Austen’s response was typical: “Wow. Disgusting, selfish and stupid in less than 140 characters. Quite impressive”. Ben Padley was equally unimpressed: “as people dead and dying in Brussels Airport you decide to use the tragedy to make Brexit arguments. Desperate and pathetic”.
The idea that the EU, and Britain’s membership of it, was behind it all did not impress Kristin Heimark: “is American Airlines the ‘de facto’ head of the EU?” she asked. That airline may have been, after all, specifically targeted. Paul Raeburn, who is in Brussels, was equally unconvinced by the EU blaming: “disgustingly distasteful. You should be ashamed. I suppose you blame 7/7 on the EU?” Quite.
And the sheer, gaping lack of basic common sense brought further severely adverse comment, with Tim Turner observing “As you are demonstrating very well, there are dangerous morons in every country”. Dave B also tried to tell Ms Pearson that her outburst was plain wrong: “it's always cool to use dead people who haven't even been named yet to prop up your poorly thought out politics #classy”. Classy it was not.
As Ms Pearson left the Tweet in place, the condemnation kept on coming. Ian Patterson replied “disgraceful to make comments like that whilst events unfolding. It's also ludicrous to suggest it's anything EU related”, while Sven Egil Omdal said simply “How absolutely disgraceful, a shame on our profession”. Yes, a stain on an already stained profession.

Back in the day, Allison Pearson would not have got in the door at the Telegraph. The fact that they let her in, and she believes this is acceptable behaviour, tells you all you need to know about that paper’s sad decline. This is bang out of order. Full stop, end of story.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Raises the bar for Katie Hopkins

rob said...

Question is do these "older babe journos" actually mean what they say or are they just hired lackeys like Louise Mensch is for Murdoch?

"Spin" as a means of getting your point across has been taken over by distortions of factual truth to such an extent that it is difficult to separate what is actually believed and what is said for effect. Has their own thought process been consumed by the spin?

Witness Bonkers Boris, his machinations and squirming out of the inevitable situations his "spin" has landed himself in.

Await to see Ms Pearson's reaction to the comments on her tweet with interest.

Anonymous said...

If neocons want to to know why their political days are numbered they need do no more than read their "news"papers - that is, all of them - and watch their TV hack presenters and "correspondents."

Gawd knows when the game will finally be up for them, but it can't come soon enough. Their manufactured muck gets worse by the day.

Arnold said...

Even if it was EU related, how would things have been different if the UK hadn't been a member?

Andy McDonald said...

I seem to recall the last time she put her foot in it, she used the response as the basis for a "How the Twitter Trolls* bullied me for simply speaking my mind..." piece. Amazing ability to capitalise on any situation.

*I get the alliteration thing, but I really wish journalists would learn the very real difference between trolling and cyber-abuse. Pet peeve. Grr.

Fishman Dave said...

I can only presume that Louise Mensch has overslept

Rivo said...

DO these people think that jihadis are attacking Paris and Brussels etc because they hate the EU even more than they do? Do they suppose that we will be left alone upon leaving the EU?
And if they are correct, and leaving the EU will protect us from the likes of IS, is it morally acceptable that we should just abandon our fellow nations to jihadist attacks while we sit safe and snug on our island? Do they think that we will somehow do better at fighting terrorism alone than we will by sharing information and resources with our neighbours?